First mid-week Lent sermon - First Article - Gen 1:1-31

 

Mid-Lent 1

                                                                                      First Article

                                                                                      Gen 1:1-31

                                                                                      3/9/22

 

          “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven an earth.”  The First Article of the Apostles’ Creed is very short – it’s only twelve words long.  But what it encompasses is mind boggling.  It is confessing the truth of God’s Word that God is the Creator of everything – heaven and earth – the entire cosmos.

          The First Article is, as we find in our text tonight, also the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In Genesis chapter one we see that God creates through the power of his Word.  He says, “let there be,” and there it is.

          Genesis chapter one and the First Article of the Creed establish a very important starting point that separates the biblical worldview from much of what has existed, and still exists today, in human thought.  It tells us the God is the Creator and creation is what he has made.  There is fixed distinction between them that cannot be bridged.  God and creation are not in some way joined together. Creation is not in any way divine. Instead, God is the Creator who is over his creation. He rules it.  He controls it.  And as we will see, he also provides through it.

          We learn from Genesis one that God made a material creation – a physical creation.  It is a place of land and water, plants and trees, fish and birds, livestock and creeping things.  And we find that in God’s view this material creation is good.  The refrain runs throughout chapter one, “And God saw that it was good.”  And then finally we hear in the last verse of our text, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  Very good. That’s what God thinks about the material world he made.  God’s word tells us that it is good stuff.

          We see this fact also in the crown of his creation: man.  We hear in our text, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

          Man alone was created in the image of God.  He alone was created to be like God. He was created to know God as God wants to be known.  He was created to live perfectly in tune with God’s will – his ordering of creation. And created in God’s image, he was God’s representative in the midst of creation.  Man and creation are not on the same level. The world may claim that we are just one part of the big “circle of life,” but we are not.  God gave man dominion over creation.

          God created man as a pairing – he created man as male and female.  We learn more about this act of creation in chapter two when we read, “Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”  God created the man’s body and then breathed into him the breath life.  He made physical body and joined it with what Jesus called the soul.  In the unity of body and soul we are what God intends us to be.

          And then God did more.  We learn that in the midst of what was very good, there was one thing that was not good.  God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”  God created woman from man.  He created Eve from Adam, as the one who perfectly corresponded to Adam. That correspondence was demonstrated in the way they were created for sexual union – for becoming one flesh.  By creating this matching pair God instituted marriage, for we learn in chapter two: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”

          This is what God did as the Maker of heaven and earth.  But the First Article of the Creed also teaches us that this was not the end of God’s creative work.  Instead, God has continued to create.  The writer to the Hebrews tells us about the Son of God, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.”  God is the One who sustains creation – who keeps it running and provides through it.  For this reason the Psalmist writes, “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

          This means that God is the Creator and giver of my body and life.  The explanation in the Small Catechism says, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.”  Notice how the language is very specific in saying that God has given us our body, eyes, ear, and all our members.  That means the body God has given to me – a body that is male or female – is his gift.  It is how he has defined me and therefore any attempt to reject that body as being the “wrong one” is a rejection of his gift, and a demonstration that the mind is not healthy. This is a condition that we need to address in love and support as we speak the truth – the same way we would help a person suffering from any form of mental illness.

          As the God who continues to create, God provides us with the things we need for life. The Small Catechism says, “He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.”  We are called to trust that God will give what we need to live, even it is not all that we want.   We are to be content with the blessings God gives. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

          Tonight we consider the First Article of the Creed. Of course, “First,” indicates that there are more Articles.  There are more Articles because while God continues to create and provide, our life and creation itself have been damaged by the entrance of sin into the world through the Fall.  The words of Ash Wednesday last week, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return” echo God’s words to Adam.  He had told him, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Now that Adam had done so, God said, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

          And the damage caused by Adam’s sin was not limited to us.  Creation itself has been warped and twisted by sin.  St. Paul told the Romans, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

          During the season of Lent, we are preparing to remember again what God did in order to provide the answer to sin, death and the fallenness of creation.  When sin entered into the world bringing death to us and corruption to all creation, God did not walk away from what he had made.  It was no longer very good.  But rather than abandoning it, he did something incredible.  He himself entered into that creation as the Son of God was sent by the Father to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

          God showed that he still considered our bodily existence to be very good, because the Son of God himself had a body as the One who is true God and true man. As Paul told the Colossians about Christ, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”  Jesus Christ came as the second Adam.  Because the holy and just God punishes sin, Jesus died on Good Friday and received God’s judgment against sin. St. Paul told the Romans, “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”

          Our sin brought death for Jesus.  But Jesus the second Adam passed through death in order to kill it. On the third day – on Easter – God raised Jesus from the dead.  He rose with a body that can never die again. The resurrection of Jesus began the transformation in which we will all share.  Paul told the Corinthians, “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”

          And this saving action is not limited to us.  Instead, in Romans Paul says, “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” He identifies the return of Christ and our resurrection as the time when this will take place

          God will give us bodies that can never die again. He will give us a creation that is renewed in which to live.  He will make all things very good once again.  And this will all take place because of the events we are preparing to remember.  It will because Jesus Christ suffered and died in his Passion on Good Friday, and rose from the dead on Easter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

              

 

Mark's thoughts: What kind of sinner are you?

 

All people are sinners. Ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve, we have been conceived and born as sinners.  Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).  Sinful fallen nature gives birth to sinful fallen nature.  We enter into this world as people who do not know God – who cannot know God.  St. Paul wrote, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

 

No parent has ever had to teach their child how to be jealous, to lie, or to be angry.  It is already there, because we are sinners.  As we grow in our abilities as people, so do the ways that sin manifests itself.  Jesus said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (Mark 7:20-23).

 

The final confirmation that every person is a sinner is found in the fact that, apart from the return of Jesus Christ, every person will die.  Paul told the Romans that “the wage of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  This link between sin and death goes back to the beginning – back to the first sin of Adam.  The apostles says, “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).

 

The true issue, then, is not whether you are a sinner – you are.  The real question is what kind of sinner are you?  Jesus began his ministry by saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).  Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:38-39). 

All people are sinners. But there are two kinds of sinners.  There are sinners who repent of their sin – who confess it before God – and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  Then there are sinners who do not repent, and instead are entirely content to continue sinning. The first group of sinners are saints and sinners at the same time.  In themselves they are people who continue to struggle with sin. But through baptism and faith they live as people who are “in Christ,” and so when God looks at them he sees not their sin but instead Christ who has won forgiveness for their every sin.  Because they are in Christ, God views them as saints – as holy ones.  On the other hand, those who do not repent are simply sinners in God’s eyes, and if they remain in that status until death they will receive the judgment of damnation.

The season of Lent is a season of repentance.  It reminds us that while yes, we are sinners, our life as Christians is one in which we are repentant sinners.  We confess our sins before God.  And in turn, the season of Lent prepares us to remember the events of Holy Week and Easter.  We remember that Jesus Christ suffered and died as the sacrifice for our sin.  But then on Easter, God raised him from the dead as he vindicated the crucified Christ as Lord and defeated death. Through faith in the Christ, who was crucified and rose from the dead for us, we have forgiveness and resurrection on the Last Day. Repentant sinners are the children of God who have the assurance of salvation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for First Sunday in Lent - Invocabit - Mt 4:1-11

 

Lent 1

                                                                                      Mt 4:1-11

                                                                                      3/6/22

 

          “In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”  That’s how 2 Kings chapter seventeen describes the end of the northern kingdom of Israel. 

          God’s Word then goes on to explain why this happened.  It says, “And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.”

          Israel had continually worshipped false gods.  Yahweh had tried to call them back to himself.  We learn: “Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.’ But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God.”

          You will notice that while this describes the end of the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C., the text also mentions that Yahweh had sent prophets to Judah, the southern kingdom.  In the end, the result there was no different.  They too ignored God’s prophets. They listened to false prophets who said that everything was fine, even as the nation worshiped idols.  And so in 587 B.C. the Babylonians destroyed the temple, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, and took the people into exile in Babylon.

          At the start, things could not have begun better. God demonstrated his love and care for Israel by rescuing them from slavery in Egypt.  He identified Israel as his son such as when he told Moses: “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me.’” 

          God had rescued Israel in the Passover and brought them through Red Sea.  He had taken the people into a covenant, and told them, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

          But Israel had failed to be a faithful son.  Rather than being a light to the nations bearing witness to the true God they had brought shame upon God’s name.  God had used the Assyrians and Babylonians to punish them. As Yahweh made clear through the prophets these empires were merely his instruments.  But in the ancient world it was assumed that the nation who won had the greater god, and the defeat of God’s people made it look as if Yahweh was no god at all.

          In the prior chapters in Matthew, the apostle had made it clear that Jesus is the Son of God.  Joseph had been informed by the angel that the child conceived in Mary was by the Holy Spirit and we have learned from Isaiah that he is Emmanuel – God with us.  At his baptism, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” 

          Jesus Christ is the Son of God in the flesh, true God and true man.  But at the same time we have also learned in the Gospel that as the Messiah – the descendant of King David – he is Israel reduced to One.  He is God’s son Israel.  Matthew tells about the return of Jesus from Egypt: “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son.” This statement which in the prophet Hosea is about the history of nation of Israel is true because, Jesus is Israel.  And we see this point made yet again in Jesus’ baptism which precedes our text because the Father’s words taken from Isaiah identify Jesus as the Servant of the Lord. Yet in Isaiah God also says, “Israel, you are my servant.”

          Israel passed through the water of the Red Sea into the wilderness, and there her history of unfaithfulness showed through.  Now Jesus has passed through the water of his baptism and we learn in our text: “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”  Jesus Christ has taken on the role of Israel, and now God has placed him in the setting where he will be tempted and will have the chance to prove that he is a faithful son where Israel was not.

          We are told, “And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”  So the devil came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” The devil’s point was simple: You are hungry. You are the Son of God. Show this. Use your power to feed yourself.”

          However, at his baptism Jesus had taken on the role of the Servant of the Lord. He was the suffering Servant sent to serve others.  This is the role that God had given to him with the word, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus was not here to us his power to serve himself.  That would be to deny and fail in the ministry God had given to him. So, Jesus responded, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

          Next the devil took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”  The devil told Jesus to make God perform a dramatic miracle in the midst of the temple.  That would get people’s attention and draw them to Jesus!  He even quoted Psalm 91 to justify it.

          But Jesus had been sent by God to carry out a work of service and suffering.  He was here to obey the Father’s will, not to force God into some action that brought Jesus worldly glory. And so our Lord responded, “Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

          Finally, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” The devil offered Jesus the easy way to power and glory.  He would have it all, if he would just worship the devil.  But Jesus had been sent to serve the serve the Father’s will. So Jesus said, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

          Where the nation of Israel, God’ son had failed, Jesus the Servant of the Lord who was Israel succeeded in remaining faithful to God. This is good news for us, because we are no better than Israel. Again and again, the devil takes us down with ease. When we face hardships and challenges he tempts us into doubting God’s love and care.  He uses our pride to tempt us into putting ourselves ahead of others.  He sets before us all of the wonderful things of this world: the money, the luxuries, the travel, the glory in sports and tempts us into putting them before God.  He runs circles around us, just like as he did with Adam and Eve in our Old Testament lesson, as he tempts us into committing sin against God.

          The devil did that to Israel.  He does that do us more of than we would care to admit. But he was not able to do it to the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  In his baptism, Jesus had taken on the role of being the Servant of the Lord – the suffering Servant who would bear our sins.  As God, Jesus has almighty power, but he never used it to serve himself.  Instead, he used it to serve, help, and heal others.  His goal was to follow obediently the Father’s will that led to the cross – the goal towards which this season of Lent is moving.

          The devil didn’t cease his attacks and temptation of Jesus.  Immediately after Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Matthew tell us, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Peter reacted by taking Jesus aside and saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”  Jesus rebuked him saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”  Jesus Christ had set his mind on the things of God.  He said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  He did this all the way to the agony and suffering of the cross, where even there we can hear the devil’s temptation in the words of the crowd who said, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

Jesus remained faithful to the Father’s will all the way to the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He received God’s judgment against our sin in his suffering and death. Crucified with criminals, his dead body was placed in a tomb. And at that point it looked like the way of faithfulness had been a pointless failure.

But on the third day – on the Easter which we will again celebrate after Holy Week – God raised Jesus from the dead. God demonstrated that the way of faithfulness had won forgiveness, and now resurrection for us. The devil had offered Jesus power and glory if he would just worship him.  But after carrying out the Father’s will, the risen Lord was able to tell his disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus spoke those words before instituting Holy Baptism.  Through baptism we receive the forgiveness that Jesus won on the cross.  As we confess our sins and continue to turn in faith to God’s gift of baptism, we know that our sins are forgiven.  We know that we belong to Jesus, the One who defeated the devil in his temptation, and who conquered him forever by his death and resurrection.  Christ has given us his Spirit through baptism, and so daily we take up the struggle against sin.  Yet when we fail, we need only speak four words to know that we are forgiven and that Christ’s victory has been given to us: “I have been baptized.”

Jesus’ victory of forgiveness, resurrection, and eternal life has been given to us.  But it is not meant only for us.  Instead our Lord said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The authority that Jesus possesses as the crucified and risen Lord serves as the reason that now we are to share the good news about what he has done with others.  Whom do you know who needs to hear that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to give them forgiveness and life with God?  This is the good news that all need to hear.  Because while the devil does succeed in tempting us, Jesus Christ was faithful to the Father’s will and defeated the tempter.  He was faithful all the way to the cross of Good Friday.  And then he was raised from the dead by the Father in victory on Easter. He is the One to whom all authority has been given.  And through baptism, his victory over sin and death is yours. 

 

 

    

           

 

         

           

 

 

 

 

  

  

 

   

 

 

 

Sermon for Ash Wednesday - Joel 2:12-19

 

Ash Wednesday

                                                                                      Joel 2:12-19

                                                                                      3/2/22

 

“Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness!”  That is how the prophet Joel described the situation in the prior chapter. 

He declares that the Day of the Lord is coming – it is near. There was an army approaching. But this was not an army of soldiers and chariots.  Instead, it was a plague of locusts.

In the first chapter Joel had said, “What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.”  Like an army, they were devastating the land.  The prophet says, “For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness. It has laid waste my vine and splintered my fig tree; it has stripped off their bark and thrown it down; their branches are made white.”

Locust plagues were part of life in the Near Eastern world. They happened from time to time. But the prophet’s words make it clear that this was no random event.  Instead, it was the “day of the Lord.”  It was an act of judgment by Yahweh against Israel.  We don’t learn any specific information about what Israel had done.  But based on what we know from elsewhere in the Old Testament it seems all but certain that this was God’s punishment for idolatry – worshipping the false gods of the surrounding peoples.

Up until our text, Joel has spoken about the destruction being brought by the locusts and how it is the day of the Lord drawing near.  But in our text, God offers a word of hope through the prophet.  He says, “‘Yet even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Yahweh calls Israel to repentance – to genuine confession of their sin.  It is not enough just to go through the motions.  He says, “rend your hearts and not your garments.”  But in our text God does not simply tell Israel to repent.  He tells them why there is hope in repentance.  There is hope because of the very character of their God.  We hear, “Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.”

This is a kind of “creedal statement” in the Old Testament that is repeated again and again.  Many people like to describe “the God of the Old Testament” as an angry and wrathful God. But instead, this is what God reveals about himself.

He is gracious and merciful – he wants to give his people what they don’t deserve, and he wants to help them.  He is slow to anger.  God is not One who is ready to “go off” at the first provocation.  And he is abounding in steadfast love.  As the apostle John tells us, God is love.  This truth that God is defined by love is emphasized in Psalm 136 where the refrain in the second half of every verse is: “for his steadfast love endures forever.”

This is what God is like. And that is why he says in our text, “Yet even now return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”  He calls his people to repentance because he is the gracious, merciful, and loving God who forgives – who relents over disaster.

We learn in our text that the people responded to the Word of the Lord. There was another call for the trumpet to be blown. But this was not a sound of warning about impending doom.  Instead, it was a call for all the people to gather in repentance. We hear, “Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.” The priests were called to weep at the temple and confess, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

On this Ash Wednesday we are entering into the season of Lent. Although we are always called to repent, this is a time in the life of the Church when we place a special emphasis on repentance.  We examine our lives and confess those things and ways by which God take second place.  We confess the ways that we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We confess the ways we have coveted, lusted, and hated. We confess the ways that we have harmed our neighbor’s reputation.

We do this during the season of Lent as a preparation for Holy Week. God has not changed.  He is still the God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  He expressed this in the Old Testament through the prophets as he shared his intention to act in a way that would provide forgiveness to all people.

In our Gospel lesson this past Sunday we heard Jesus say, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”

We prepare during Lent to observe again the remembrance of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.  At Christmas we celebrated the fact that God sent his Son into the world as he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man, was Emmanuel – God with us – as he lived in this world as one of us without ceasing to be God.

During Epiphany we saw that Jesus the sinless One was baptized by John the Baptist as he received a baptism of repentance.  The Spirit of God descended like a dove and came to rest on him, and God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  God identified Jesus as the Servant of the Lord – as the suffering Servant who would bear the sins of all.

Our Lord went to Jerusalem to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified.  Yet while he endured this physical suffering and humiliation for us, it was but a sign of the true depths of his agony. In the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  Jesus had come to drink the cup of God’s wrath against our sin.  St. Paul put this in stark terms when he wrote, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus Christ died on the cross as the sacrifice who received God’s judgment – his punishment, his damnation that we deserve because of our sins.  By his death, he has redeemed us – he has freed us from sin. But God wasn’t done. Lent prepares us for Holy Week. At the end of the that week, Jesus’ dead body was buried in a tomb. But Holy Week leads to Easter, for just as Jesus Christ had told his disciples, on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead.

On Good Friday it looked like God had rejected Jesus.  But as Paul told the Romans, he “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” God vindicated Jesus as the Christ who had fulfilled the Scriptures and won for us the forgiveness of sins. And in the resurrection of Jesus, God defeated death.  In the resurrection of Jesus, he began the resurrection of the Last Day that will be ours as well when he returns in glory.

Lent is a time when we consider the sin in our life.  We do not seek to excuse it, or minimize it, or ignore it.  Instead, we confess it. We listen to God’s words through the prophet Joel, “Yet even now return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”

Joel assured the people of Israel that they could repent and turn to God, “for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.”  We are able to so for the same reason.  It is still true, and now we have seen it revealed in the most amazing way. 

We have seen God send his Son into the world in order to suffer and die for our sins to give us forgiveness.  We have seen God raise Jesus Christ on Easter, as he defeated death and gave us the hope of eternal life with him. We repent and confess our sins confident that because of Jesus Christ, God forgives us, loves us, and gives us eternal life with him. 

  

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Ash Wednesday

 

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent.  During Lent we repent of our sins and rededicate our lives to living out our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection.  

Scripture reading:

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, “Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” Then the LORD became jealous for his land and had pity on his people. The LORD answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. (Joel 2:12-19)

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, You despise nothing You have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.  Create in us new and contrite hearts that lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness we may receive from You full pardon and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.